Deliberate foreign body ingestion is a significant issue in prison and psychiatric settings. It is associated with serious physical complications, including bowel obstruction, perforation and haemorrhage. Episodes of deliberate foreign body ingestion were identified retrospectively from 5417 incident records from two inpatient forensic services (one mental health and one intellectual
Treatment of psychopathy: a conceptual and empirical review [2018]
Purpose For decades, psychopathy has been thought to be untreatable. Yet, conceptualisations, and indeed its assessment, have deviated away from viewing the disorder as personality pathology towards a behavioural focus where the core underlying deficits in cognition and affect have been ignored. Interventions have followed suit leading to a premature
‘First and foremost a human being…’: user perspectives on mental health services from 50 mentally disordered offenders [2018]
Background: This is the first study of this kind in a Danish context. Knowledge and research on user perspectives is rather limited in Danish as well as Nordic psychiatry. Aims: The aim of the study was to create new knowledge on patient and user perspectives and how mentally disordered offenders
‘The Art of Understanding in Forensic Psychiatric Care’ – From a Caring Science Perspective Based on a Lifeworld Approach [2018]
Patients in forensic psychiatric clinics are a vulnerable and exposed patient group due to suffering from a severe mental disorder, having committed a crime and being cared for against their will in an institutional environment with a high level of security. The art of understanding in forensic psychiatric care is
Harm‐reduction approaches for self‐cutting in inpatient mental health settings: Development and preliminary validation of the Attitudes to Self‐cutting Management (ASc‐Me) Scale [2018]
Introduction Harm‐reduction approaches for self‐harm in mental health settings have been under‐researched. Aim To develop a measure of the acceptability of management approaches for self‐cutting in mental health inpatient settings. Methods Stage one: scale items were generated from relevant literature and staff/service user consultation. Stage two: A cross‐sectional survey and
Psychopathological Assessment of Risk of Restraint in Acute Psychiatric Patients [2017]
The study aims to identify independent predictors of physical restraint in acute psychiatric patients and to determine the predictive power of a risk assessment model centered on psychopathological dimensions. We included 1552 patients admitted to a psychiatric intensive care unit over a 5-year period. Patients were rated on the Brief
The Concept of Patient Participation in Forensic Psychiatric Care: The Patient Perspective [2016]
The importance of patient participation is advocated in medical treatment and nursing care and has been linked to increased quality of care, increased patient satisfaction, and treatment adherence. Still, patients in forensic psychiatric care often report being unhappy with their experienced level of participation. The concept of patient participation is
Nurses’ Time Use in Forensic Psychiatry: Core Interventions Outlined in the Finnish Clinical Practice Guideline on Schizophrenia [2016]
Forensic psychiatric nurses are key in implementing the core interventions outlined in the clinical practice guideline on schizophrenia. This study endeavors to ascertain how these were implemented in routine practice in forensic psychiatry by measuring how nurses use their time. Data were collected from registered nurses and practical mental nurses
Triggers for Violent Criminality in Patients With Psychotic Disorders [2016]
Importance Absolute and relative risks of violence are increased in patients with psychotic disorders, but the contribution of triggers for violent acts to these risks is uncertain. Objective To examine whether a range of triggers for violent acts are associated with risks of violence in patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders
Pediatric PTSD: Clinical, Forensic, and Diagnostic Understanding [2017]
Exposure to trauma is a common event in the lives of children and adolescents living in the United States. Although a minority of youth develop full posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a traumatic event, those who do tend to have an extended course of symptoms in multiple functional domains and
Dissociation: Defining the Concept in Criminal Forensic Psychiatry [2017]
Claims of amnesia and dissociative experiences in association with a violent crime are not uncommon. Research has shown that dissociation is a risk factor for violence and is seen most often in crimes of extreme violence. The subject matter is most relevant to forensic psychiatry. Peritraumatic dissociation for instance, with
A Positive Behavioral Approach for Aggression in Forensic Psychiatric Settings [2017]
Aggression toward self and others by complex patients admitted to forensic psychiatric settings is a relatively common yet extremely difficult behavior to treat. Traditional interventions in forensic inpatient settings have historically emphasized control and management over treatment. Research over the past several years has demonstrated the value of behavioral and
Experience coercion, post‐traumatic stress, and satisfaction with treatment associated with different coercive measures during psychiatric hospitalization [2018]
Coercive measures are frequently used in psychiatric hospitalization. However, there are few studies that analyse perceived coercion, post‐traumatic stress, and subjective satisfaction with the hospitalization treatment associated with different types of coercive measures. The sample consisted of 111 patients admitted to two psychiatric units and divided into three groups based
Highly Aggressive Women in a Forensic Psychiatric Hospital [2017]
In this study, we compared three groups of women admitted to a public forensic inpatient facility over the course of a two-year period. Detailed and systematic examination of social and psychiatric histories revealed that the group with the most persistent levels of aggression differed from the other two groups with
Differentiating factitious psychological presentations from malingering: Implications for forensic practice [2018]
Practitioners and researchers have long been challenged with identifying deceptive response styles in forensic contexts, particularly when differentiating malingering from factitious presentations. The origins and the development of factitious disorders as a diagnostic classification are discussed, as well as the many challenges and limitations present with the current diagnostic conceptualization.
Long-Term Impact of a Tailored Seclusion Reduction Program: Evidence for Change? [2018]
International comparative studies show that Dutch seclusion rates are relatively high. Therefore, several programs to change this practice were developed and implemented. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a seclusion reduction program over a long time frame, from 2004 until 2013. Three phases could be
Listening to the Patient Perspective: Psychiatric Inpatients’ Attitudes Towards Physical Restraint [2018]
When other options fail, physical restraint is used in inpatient psychiatric units as a means to control violent behavior of agitated inpatients and to prevent them from harm. The professional and social discourse regarding the use of restrictive measures and the absence of the inpatients’ attitudes towards these measures is
Relational caring and contact after treatment. An evaluation study on criminal recidivism [2018]
Background Criminal recidivism within two years after discharge from secure Forensic Psychiatric Hospitals (FPHs) is high, that is, over 36% for short-term judicial measures. It is assumed that relational care during treatment and continued voluntary contact and informal care after discharge, are factors that contribute to the reduction of criminal
The relations among animal abuse, psychological disorders, and crime: Implications for forensic assessment [2018]
The confluence of developments in the assessment of animal abuse, the evolution of psychiatric nosology for the diagnosis of conduct disorder, legislative changes involving crimes against non‐human animals, and the recent inclusion of crimes against animals in the FBI’s National Incident‐Based Reporting System, highlights the critical need for examining the
Overcoming Resistance in Clinical and Forensic Interviews [2018]
Reactance is one of the most common underlying causes of resistance. Reactance, a term coined by Brehm, is the reaction that occurs when a person feels their freedom of choice is threatened. Reactance can be especially troublesome for those attempting to gather information through interviews, such as mental health or